For freight, waste, business travel, commuting and end-of-life, what does the Scope 3 Standard call primary data and what secondary?
The standard's Table 7.4 gives examples per category. Primary data is specific to your activity: actual distance, your own tonnes of waste, carrier or waste-company data, employee surveys. Secondary data is an average: estimated distances, industry-average factors, national disposal rates. It says companies may use any combination.
Freight (Category 4)
- Primary: energy use or emissions data from the transport provider, actual distance travelled, and carrier-specific emission factors.
- Secondary: estimated distance by mode, based on industry-average data.
Waste (Category 5)
- Primary: site-specific emissions data from waste management companies, your own tonnes of waste, and company-specific emission factors.
- Secondary: tonnes of waste estimated from industry averages, and industry-average emission factors.
Business travel (Category 6) and commuting (Category 7)
- Business travel primary: activity-specific data from the transport supplier, such as an airline, and carrier-specific factors.
- Commuting primary: the distance travelled and mode, collected from employees.
- Secondary for both: distance estimated from industry-average data.
End of life of sold products (Category 12)
- Primary: data from consumers on disposal rates, and data from waste management providers on emission rates or energy use.
- Secondary: disposal rates and emissions or energy use estimated from national average statistics.
Mixing is allowed
The standard says companies may use any combination of primary and secondary data. The table puts a company's own tonnes of waste on the primary side and industry-average factors on the secondary side, so one line can use both (our reading of the definitions). Say which is which when you report, since the standard also asks for the share of emissions calculated with data from suppliers.
Example: sorting a factory's records
- Inbound steel: 80 tonnes over 1,200 kilometres from the lorry receipts = 96,000 tonne-kilometres, actual distance, primary
- Freight factor taken from a published table for the vehicle type: secondary (our reading of the definitions)
- Waste: 120 tonnes weighed at the gate, primary; landfill factor from a database, secondary
- Staff commute: a survey of 40 of 200 employees gives distance and mode, primary for the sample; the other 160 are estimated from it (our reading of the definitions)
- Sold products: no disposal data from users, so a national average disposal rate, secondary
The tonnages and survey counts are example numbers. Extending a sample to all staff is covered by the guidance on sampling.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so your own kilowatt hours and litres are on file as activity data. The factor applied is a published one. Freight, waste, travel and commuting records come from your transporters, waste contractors, travel bookings and staff.
- Primary or secondary data, by goal
- Share of Scope 3 from supplier data
- How to fill gaps in Scope 3 data
- Free calculators
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard
Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Table 7.4 lists examples, not requirements. Check the standard's current edition before you quote it to a buyer.